Loki Review

Don't count your chickens before they patch.

Worship! Worship at all times. I've never been terribly religious, but that's what I learned playing Loki&#Array;Heroes of Mythology, that and never count your chickens before they hatch. This hack 'n slash RPG pits players as mythological heroes against evil wherever it may be, but specifically it seems like the Egyptian god of chaos and evil, Seth, has decided he needs to be in charge of everything, including gods that have nothing to do with him, like Thor and Quetzalcoatl. Each character&#Array;Egyptian sorcerer, Aztec shaman, Greek fighter, and Norse warrior&#Array;has their own three Gods to call on for power, but it will cost 25% of the experience points you earn battling enemies such as giant scorpions, mummies, and wolves. Never mind the slower leveling, though, because the only way to advance your skill trees is to do all your deeds in the name of some god or another.

As an example, take the Norse warrior. He's a big lug of a fellow who can specialize in two-handed weapons, dual wielding, and lances depending on how you allot the points between Thor, Tyr, and Odin. They also each bestow lightning, buff, or ice effects. Of course, different races have their own specialties. The Egyptian has fire darkness, and lightning spells, while the Aztec can summon animals, transform herself, and fight from the spirit world. The Greek is more hunter than fighter; learning swords as a supplement to her bow and trap use. So the classes are pretty typical, but the mythological trappings make the surface, at least, different from a straight-up fantasy game.

To accelerate your skill trees, you can make offerings to the gods at the same altars where you switch alignments between the three. This is a handy way to clear your inventory of some unneeded gear (things that can only be equipped by another race, for example) while gaining a few faith points at the same time. The gods aren't partial to common items, though, so you'll still be able to clean up selling that stuff off to the vendors. Another option is to break things down items at the blacksmith's. The raw materials or parts can be used in assembling more powerful weapons-- with added magic if you've found any runes. It felt like that process was probably more headache than the product would end up being worth, considering I was always carrying around at least two better weapons and a bunch of armor for equipping when my level caught up.

Quests are usually pretty plot driven, with few "kill x" style missions. Fetch tasks are common, though, but even heading through a dungeon to kill a boss can be a slog. Despite the start of the game's "Mortal" difficulty there are loads of baddies, and it's not uncommon to find yourself running for dear life with half the zone in tow. The warrior might be able to one-hit a variety of guys and take the other damage, but some of the intelligence-heavy will have to run in circles. Constant danger may sound thrilling, but it gets pretty monotonous to just chug potions for the next hit and run.

The random level generator often feels pretty limited in terms of how different the rooms will actually be. Sometimes it seems like a dungeon will latch onto a specific building block, causing you to wonder if you somehow ended up backtracking by accident. That said, the environments of each area stay distinct. You'll battle through deserts, caves, volcanoes, and jungles, with specific enemies for the most part. You may get sick of sand worms in the desert, but once you get to the jungle you'll be dealing with jaguars.

Loki motivates players to complete all the difficulty levels in the same way Diablo II did: wicked awesome loot and level uber characters. The "timeline" works like this: a character plays through their own world first, then the other three characters', and then moves up in difficulty to do it all again. Along the way you can reset enemies and dungeons to gain extra experience, but the important part is that by continuing, you keep your level and inventory each step of the way.

Whether you'll really want to play through the game three times to get to the "divine" items is a question of how obsessive you can be, but it might be more fun knowing you can do it with friends. You can even set up duels or team battles against them online or via LAN. Sounds great, right? Except, at the time of this writing, between patches and just plain oddness in requirements, getting into the GameCenter online set up is a lot harder than it should be, and actually, post patch they are requiring keys that don't come with the product to play even the single player game. That's one way for tech support to earn their keep.

The Verdict

LokiHeroes of Mythology cops a lot off Diablo II, but the loot-hungry may find it worthwhile anyways due to its mythological setting and god worship system of skill acquisition. The graphics and sound add to the game, rather than take your attention away with a goofy voice or crummy animation. For a group of dungeon crawlers, online Loki might be an ok choice eventually, if they can fix the patching issues.